The Joy In Living

Part Two

Babblings: Thank you to those who reviewed the first part. Please enjoy this second part. I'm sorry if it sucks.

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After that night, they didn't talk anymore about Heero's babies' fathers. Heero quit his job and stayed at the clinic helping Sally all day. There were worse things he could think of doing – a lot worse. He liked helping people. Maybe he thought helping them was making up for all the innocents he had killed before.

By the beginning of Heero's third trimester it was getting hard for him even to waddle about the house and it was nearly impossible to sleep at night between trying to get comfortable with a huge beach ball in front of him and his children constantly going at it in his stomach.

Because Heero wasn't able to move around much, he started to dwell on his memories of his friends and of the war.

He remembered when he first met Duo and then the others; how he had despised them all at first, but by the end of the war they were companions. He remembered when they had saved the world. He remembered when he had nearly died when he blew up his Gundam. He remembered how close the four of them had become after the war.

And that's when he realized how much he truly missed them in spite of what they had done to him. Maybe if the circumstances had been different and they had all been sober, Heero would be with them now, happily on Earth, instead of out in the colonies with only one friend and he was lucky to have her.

The bell chimed one day when Sally was busy with another patient. She asked if Heero would go see who it was because wasn't expecting anyone else for the day. Heero made his way very slowly to the waiting room. Without looking through the door first, he opened it and went into the reception area. When he finally saw who it was, he panicked and waddled back toward the door, but not before they caught sight of him.

"Heero?" they asked, all at once. Heero couldn't walk fast enough; in fact, he could hardly walk at all. He made it to the door just in time to lock it. When he passed the room where Sally was, he said, "It's for you," and made his way to his room, collapsing on the bed in a fit of tears. He wrapped his arms around his belly, muttering, "I love you, I love you," over and over again.

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He thought he was alone, but when he opened his eyes, it turned out he was wrong; Duo, Quatre, Trowa, Wufei, and Sally all sat near his bed, all looking at him with worried eyes. He wrapped the blankets more closely around him. "What did you tell them?" he hissed at Sally.

"She didn't tell us anything," Wufei jumped in before Sally could say anything. "She gave us her address and everything before she left and told us to visit any time, because friends tell friends where they are going," he said, eyes glowing with malice.

"Yeah," said Trowa. "So we decided to come visit her on our break from school."

"Why the fuck did you leave?" asked Duo, leaning forward to grasp the collar of Heero's shirt, pulling their faces close together.

"Duo," said Quatre, pulling Duo back. "I think you're hurting him. He must have had a good reason for leaving," he added, giving Heero a knowing look.

"Were you afraid?" hissed Duo, trying to hank Heero's chains.

"Fuck you!" yelled Heero. "You don't have a clue. Do you even remember what happened that night?"

Sally jumped up and stood between them. "Stress is not good for Heero and his condition. Please do not provoke him." She glared at Duo, then at Heero. "Please. Heero, you should know better."

He nodded and wrung the sheets in his hands, looking down, not making eye contact with any of them. "Sorry," he muttered.

"What's wrong with Heero?" asked Trowa, his voice tinged with worry, all the anger from before gone. "What are you hiding underneath those blankets?"

Quatre let go of Duo and stepped forward to grasp Heero's hand. "Heero," he said, tears forming in his eyes. "Heero, are you dying?"

At this, Heero had to laugh, in spite of the situation. "No, I'm not dying."

"Then what is wrong with you?" asked Wufei, eyebrows rising.

Heero shook his head. He didn't want them to get involved; didn't want to deal with their pity. They didn't need to know. Something like this would change their lives forever and Heero didn't want that. If they didn't remember what happened that night then that's the way it was going to remain. "Nothing's wrong with me. I've just been going under a lot of stress lately from work and it's making me very irritable." Out of the corner of his eye, he could make out the figure of Sally walking away, leaving him alone with the four people in the world he least wanted to talk with.

"So then show us what you're hiding under those blankets," said Duo, not buying Heero's act even for a moment.

"That's none of your business," said Heero, glaring at his ex-best-friend. "I don't have to tell you anything."

"Friends tell their friends if something is wrong with them."

"Well then it's a good thing you're not my friend anymore."

Growling in frustration, Duo ripped the covers off of Heero. Heero tried, vainly, to cover his stomach, but to no avail. It was just too big. Duo started laughing. "Jesus, Heero, you were freaking out over your weight? Though I guess I would too. You look as though you've been eating enough for five people." He didn't have time to stop the pillow from hitting him head.

"That's because I have been eating enough for five people, you asshole!" exclaimed Heero, hot tears coming to his eyes, no matter how hard he tried to keep them at bay. "I'm pregnant with your guys' children, because you all fucking raped me when you were drunk off your asses. Now get the hell out of my room!"

In the silence that ensued, you could have heard a pin drop. Then Heero turned his back to them and started sobbing, unable to hold it back anymore after so many months. Never before in his life had he wept as such, but he couldn't stop the dam from breaking any longer. His body shook with his crying. Suddenly he felt multiple pairs of arms wrapping around him, trying to sooth him; to stop his tears.

After several long minutes, Heero's sobs slowed. "Hee-chan, I'm so sorry," said Duo, nuzzling Heero's neck. "We didn't know. We didn't know why you left."

"I did," said Quatre, softly. "I wasn't completely drunk that night. I'm sorry I let that happen."

Heero shook his head. He could never be mad at Quatre. The boy was so calming and charming, ready to comfort anyone and everyone.

Somehow, they had all made room on Heero's twin-sized bed and Heero found himself in a cocoon of warmth and… love? No, certainly not. "I don't want your pity," he said. "So if that's the only reason you guys are still here, then you can leave right now."

He felt Wufei and Trowa chuckle against his back. "Don't you get it yet, stupid?" asked Trowa.

But Wufei answered for him. "We all love you, Hee-chan. We were worried sick about you when you just up and disappeared. We aren't leaving you, especially if you are carrying our children."

"Speaking of which," chirped in Quatre, "how is that even possible?"

"Doctor J," the pregnant brunette muttered.

He felt Duo tense against his side. "What did that fucker do to you?" he growled.

"Duo," said Heero, "it's not worth it. Don't go doing something stupid. But basically, he thought it would make me stronger if I had both male and female parts. So I went under a series of surgeries, but he never told me what exactly he was doing. I didn't find out until Sally told me."

"But," said Quatre, placing a hand protectively upon Heero's stomach, "if he hadn't done that we wouldn't have beautiful children on the way."

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to carry four children at the same time?" asked Heero. "I can hardly walk anymore and I still have two months left of my pregnancy."

"Wow," gasped Duo, as though the thought of him being a father had just barely occurred to him. He hugged me close him. "Wow," he repeated. "We are all going to be daddies."

I laughed. "Yes, we are, Duo. Yes, we are."

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In spite of my telling them to go back and finish school, none of them would leave. They said they weren't going to leave me; they loved me; they wanted to see our children born. I saw the looks Sally kept giving me and I knew she felt happy for me. She had wanted me to tell them; well, in an unexpected way she got her wish. And so did I, though I didn't even know I had a wish.

My room had been transformed. Sally didn't have enough room in her house for all of us, really, but she had an extra bed that she said could be moved into my room. So, the small hospital room now had a king-sized bed in it. There wasn't much room to move around, but it couldn't be helped.

These days I rarely got out of bed. My ankles had swollen to about twice their usual size and my huge belly got in the way of everything and it threw me off balance. I was never alone though. Someone was always with me; keeping me company; telling me stories of what had happened when I left.

Then, at the beginning of my eighth month, the inevitable happened: I went into labor.

Duo was with me when I suddenly screamed out in pain. He looked panicked, but I knew what was happening. "Duo, go get Sally," I hissed out between clenched teeth and I clutched the sheets in my hands.

He paused for a moment before running from the room, yelling Sally's name. A few moments later, everyone was with me and Sally was calmly giving orders. She looked me in the eyes, stroking my hair from my eyes. "You know what I have to do, Heero. We've been over this before, right?"

I nodded. She was going to give me a cesarean section, because, even though I had some feminine parts, I didn't have all of them, including the ones that made it possible to give birth. "Yeah," I whispered as the contraction ceased. "I'm ready."

She inserted an IV into my arm. The world became fuzzy – and I was gone before the next contraction overtook me.

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I came back into consciousness slowly, the view around me slowly coming into view. Each of my lovers were holding a baby. The sight brought tears to my eyes. I moved slightly, causing pain to shoot up from my stomach. I brought my hand to the bandage there. "The pain will go away after awhile," said Sally, bringing everyone's attention to me.

They ran to my side, showing me my children, letting me hold each one of them in turn. Never in my life had I been in a situation such as this. I never thought I'd have children, but now look at me. There were two girls and two boys. The girls were obviously Wufei and Quatre's, one having slender, Chinese eyes and black hair; the other was blonde and smaller than the other. Duo and Trowa were the fathers of my boys, both with dark brown hair. They all had my eyes.

"What are we going to name them?" asked Duo.

I shook my head, slightly taken aback. Truthfully, I'd never really thought about it. "I don't know."

So we discussed it (our first real family discussion) and each of my children earned their names accordingly: Saya, Miyaka, Aram, and Takuto. They were each beautiful in their own way. I couldn't wait to see how they would each end up. What would they like to eat? Would they like piloting or would they like something completely different?

My body was exhausted. With one last smile, I slipped back off into sleep.

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"Daddy!" a four-year-old Aram yelled and flung himself into my lap. I grunted, but wrapped my arms around him.

"What did you do this time?" I asked, teasingly. Aram was definitely Duo's son, with the same annoying recklessness and affinity for trouble.

"Nothing," he said, crossing his arms and pouting.

Unsurprisingly, a few moments later, Miyaka ran in, her blonde curls bouncing on her head and a huge spot of mud on her dress. "Daddy, Aram threw mud at Saya and me!"

I eyed my son. "Is that so?'

Aram slumped into my arms, not meeting my gaze. "They were teasing me. They said… I was stupid."

This caused me to laugh and Aram glared at me. But I wasn't laughing at him. My own childhood memories had long-since been erased from my mind. The horrors of the war and all my training before then had seen to that. So this was just so… funny. I wondered if anything like this had ever happened to me. Had I ever had a fairly normal life like my children did?

Takuto stumbled in the kitchen, rubbing sleep from his eyes, cutely. He stared at us oddly, as if trying to figure out what was going on. Silently, he crawled into my lap, next to Aram, his thumb in his mouth. Then, in to complete my little group of children, Saya stormed in, even more covered in mud than Miyaka had been.

My giggled increased until all of my children were staring at me like I had lost my mind. I laughed more these days than I ever had before in my life. I loved my children to death. I motioned my daughters toward me and brought them all in for a group hug. Soon all of us were laughing, their feud forgotten, at least for the moment.

"What is going on here?" came a voice from the doorway: Wufei's, home early from work. A slight smirk crossed his face.

After the birth of the quadruplets, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei all went back to college on the colony while I stayed at home to raise the children. They were always there when I needed them and even now I never felt alone. We had our own house now. With their four salaries, we had more than enough money to buy a large house big enough for the nine of us – and maybe more. Which reminded me of what I needed to tell them tonight…

"I'm teaching them how to solve a conflict," I said, grinning.

Wufei shook his head and walked forward to place a chaste kiss on my lips. "I'm going to go take a shower, alright? I'll be back down in a bit. The others will be here shortly."

My other lovers arrived a few minutes later, all seemingly in a good mood, which led me to think that something was going on.

Dinner was as it usually was: chaos. All my children liked something different, so we always ended up making several different dishes. It seemed as though every meal was a food fight, but tonight it just made me laugh, instead of getting angry at them.

We tucked the quadruplets in for bed early. They all looked to perfect laying there, their eyelashes lying down on their chubby cheeks. Ah, I loved my life.

But I didn't have much time to admire them as I would have liked because I found myself being dragged off toward our bedroom and pushed down onto the bed.

After an amazing night of lovemaking, I finally figured out what had been so off about them all evening. Duo got up off the bed and reached in his discarded coat pocket. He withdrew a box and handed it to me. "Open it," he said.

Slowly, I opened the box to reveal a beautiful sapphire ring. I looked up, eyes glistening with tears. Four pairs of arms tightened around me.

"We can't get married because of laws and such," said Quatre, "but we all contributed to get you this ring… you know… as a sign of our love for you."

I nodded, tears rolling down my cheeks. "I love you guys." Duo took my hand in his own and slid the ring onto my finger – it was a perfect fit. "I love you."

In amongst the pain from the war and the pain from my past, I had managed to find the joy in living. My life had turned around and a complete one-eighty, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

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Babblings: So there it is. I hope you enjoy this. Please tell me what you think. My New Year's resolution was to review every fanfiction I read, so that should be yours too! –hint, hint-